Andrés Velasco, a former presidential candidate and finance minister of Chile, is Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of numerous books and papers on international economics and development, and has served on the faculty at Harvard, Columbia, and New York Universities.

Thank you, Mr Velasco. for a very good and interesting analysis of the phenomenon of "illiberal democracy" generally, and the recent developments in Argentina and Venezuela as illiberal democracies specifically. One cannot avoid seeing the irony in both of these countries having resources that would not, under true democracies theoretically, allow such suffering as the populaces have undergone.
I have very good friends in both of those countries, and also in the other Latin American "illiberal democracies" mentioned, and have felt saddened by the knowledge of the suffering of the citizens.
On the other hand, there is a creeping towards the characteristics of illiberal democracy right here in the US. Obama's arrogance, sometimes subtly expressed, other times not so subtly, have produced conditions similar--different only in degree--to those of the very desperate Kirchner, Maduro, Morales, Correa. Americans have the advantage of better preparation, personal and institutional, and we will resist Obama and his Democrat successors, so that the US can continue in its tradition of stability, freedom, and opportunity.

Voters get what they vote for, well the ones voting for the winners do

Surprisingly if voters dont like the outcome it is often very hard to find somebody who will admit to voting for the in crowd, or if they do its with the caveat they have 'gone too far'.

Orban is more popular than ever, whether you like or dislike his policies, in what way is that undemocratic

When an economy is down it is quite common for the incumbents to be booted out. If the Right wins it is claimed elsewhere to be Right is rght. If the Left win then elsewhere it is proclaimed Left is right. Its quite entertaining to watch

Its got very little to do with who is right, its the voters getting rid of people they are fed up with. Opposition parties do not win, incumbents lose

'Andrés Velasco, a former presidential candidate and finance minister of Chile'. I am endlessly surprised by how little politicians understand politics. To repeat oppositions do not win, incumbents lose. Turnover is inevitable because oppositions do not have consequences for their policy because it is not implemented

I cannot help but compare this piece with the far saner and more coherent essay on the same subject -- also published recently on this Project Syndicate site -- by Jorge Castaneda.

Whatever Velasco's ire towards left-wing populists (I suspect he has greater tolerance for right-wing populists like Fujimori or even right-wing dictators like Gen. Pinochet, who happily adopt the technocratic recommendations of people like him and his co-regionalist, Ricardo Hausmann, ) putting the Kirchner pair and Nicolas Maduro into the same category as Robert Mugabe and Viktor Orban is stretching the reader's credulity.

Perhaps Velasco needs to put his considerable ideological vanity into his pocket and turn his mind to a sober analysis of what truly ails the region.

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